When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the fare hikes in December, the agency met with some heated criticism.

“The damage inflicted on our transit system by Superstorm Sandy has added over $700 million in new debt to the MTA yet despite this blow, we’ve seen no action to reform the MTA’s broken finances,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in December. “A continual reliance on a combination of unprecedented borrowing, and fare hikes every two years is unsustainable — not when working families in this city continue to struggle to make ends meet.”